By Staff Writer
Parliament of Zimbabwe has blamed the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission Development Company (ZETDC) for power outages experienced during the 2024 National Budget Presentation last week.
The blackout happened in the presence of President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who had to embarrassingly leave Parliament Building at Mt Hampden in the dark.
The awkward situation lasted almost five minutes amid fears of a security threat against the 82-year-old Zanu PF leader.
Zimbabwe is experiencing its worst power crisis ever, forcing load-shedding of more than 16 hours countrywide.
However, according to Parliament, Thursday’s power cut was caused by tripping of electricity distribution pylons due to bad weather.
“The Parliament of Zimbabwe sincerely apologises to His Excellency, the President, Dr E.D. Mnangagwa and the nation at large for the power outage that occurred yesterday, 28th November 2024, right at the end of the presentation of the 2025 Budget Statement by the Hon Minister of Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion, Mthuli Ncube. The incident is sincerely regretted.
“Information at hand from the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) indicates that thunderstorms and high winds affected overhead lines resulting in tripping at a 132kv feeder that supplies power to a substation that feeds power to the Mt Hampden 33/11kv.
“This resulted in the loss of power supplies to the New Parliament Building and the surrounding areas at 1525 hours,” the statement signed by Clerk Kennedy Chokuda reads.
Further, Parliament explained that the standby generator at the Parliament precinct was equally affected by the power surge resulting in the generator losing its memory settings.
“The standby generator could not automatically switch-on and had to be manually reset to enable it to start providing power. Power was duly restored within less than five (5) minutes of the outage.”
Meanwhile, Parliament has assured the nation that measures were being instituted, in consultation with all relevant stakeholders, to ensure that there is no recurrence of a similarly embarrassing episode.
